Thomas Frank sack incoming as Spurs and football are stupid, mate
In the end it was like kicking a stray dog that just kept hanging around. Unpleasant, debasing and lacking empathy: words which describe so much of our football media.
The persecution of Ange was as easy as shooting fish in a barrel. They kept on and on. Picking at the same scab until it bled. It was horrible to witness his depressed, slumped shoulders and downbeat body language. That big grey coat became like a physical manifestation of his mood.
So to see his delight at winning the Europa League was uplifting. As he embraced his family it was impossible not to feel some joy. He seemed to stand taller.
But beyond the moment, the whole episode revealed much about where we are now. The only criteria for judging a manager’s success or even worth is seemingly not trophies but league position. Only maximising money matters. Glory, history, culture, memories don’t matter, or only as far as they can be monetised.
Is that why you like football? Really? Do you think Spurs fans just shrugged as they won the Europa and said ‘yeah but 17th means we only get £120 million – sack him’. I hope not. But fans are stuck in a kind of legacy thinking. Today, trophies obviously don’t really matter, they don’t bring in as much money. The gap between finishing sixth or 17th is approximately £40million and apparently that’s what counts. That is the governing fiscal reality. Never mind that Ange has 100% more European success than Mikel Arteta and are in the Champions League.
You can say the position of 17th isn’t good enough for Spurs, but that is to take an irrational belief and think it’s reality. Is it so very bad? You didn’t get relegated and you won a tournament. Aw, are the big boys laughing at you Daniel, because you’ve shat yourself again? You should be allowed to fail at least once, otherwise you end up with a procession of two-year managers on an endless loop of reinvention.
His sacking is wholly an example of Daniel Levy or the club in general not trusting their own judgement. Understandably perhaps, as their mistakes are legion. Regardless if you disagree or not with the sacking, it’s just another rinse and repeat. They are constitutionally incapable of sticking to a decision. Sack someone for being defensive and not playing ‘the Spurs way’, play attacking football and sack them for not being defensive enough. When you’ve sacked disciplinarians for being too strict, laissez-faire managers for not being strict enough, you’ve nowhere left to go. Have the bloody courage of your convictions for once, accept things sometimes go against you in the league, temper your frustration at that with a European trophy. Is that so bad? Evidently, yes.
Maybe Ange isn’t good enough, but Spurs appointed him. Stick by your choice. It’s not like he’s not won anything. He did what you asked. Can’t you get anything right? You’ve sacked managers for not winning and sacked managers for actually winning. Stupid. Sacking all those managers because you’ve not got the balls to ride out a difficult period clearly doesn’t work, as evidenced by results. So why keep doing it? All you’re doing is cursing each new man with your own insecurities. Constantly dumping your girlfriend for not being attractive enough.
If you appoint Thomas Frank and he finishes between 7th and 9th, is that the future already written? Sacked. What do Spurs actually want? Do they even know?
Ange was just a realist; Spurs, even in the best light, would never have won the title or close. Giving up on the league is just sensible for any club that is in the latter stages of any cup. Or it would be for anybody not completely money orientated. But that’s not good enough for the voraciously greedy for whom 17th and a cup is worse than 6th and no cup. After all, aside from pathetic ego, there’s no real difference between 6th and 17th except a few million. You clearly think little of the Europa League because you sacked a manager who won it.
As is usual in football, successful businessmen make terrible business choices. Sacking someone for, effectively, not making the club £20 million more with a top-six finish is stupid. This season, rolling all their earnings together, they were about one reserve midfielder’s cost behind what they could realistically expect to garner. Success is failure, seen through this lens. War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. Welcome to the modern world.
Of course, it is obvious to everyone who doesn’t own a football club that winning a trophy promotes the club far more than a higher league position and can be monetised far more easily. They clearly don’t realise this.
If it was reversed and they finished sixth and got knocked out of the Europa League early, he’d still be in a job. That’s where we are. Only money and perhaps delusional ego matters. It has corrupted the values of the game completely. It’s no longer a sport about the glory of victory.
Wasn’t Ange appointed to win something? But as soon as he did, he was sacked. Did he not win in the manner you wanted? Objectively, that’s mad, but it makes perfect sense if you accept only money matters. And yet perversely they are so profligate with the money. Frittering it away on badly researched transfers, overpaying transfer fees and paying obscenely big wages. It’s like they’re saying ‘we’ll sack you if you don’t earn us enough money for us to waste’.
Is this sustainable or just a sick blip? When we are nakedly disregarding winning but are just craving more money instead, where is the sporting element of football? Do we only cheer when another 10 million has been earned? If you’d rather a top-half finish than the joy of victory, we are through the looking glass and we have to ask what are we even playing for anymore? It asks basic, existential questions of football when you are punished for winning a trophy. It’s f*cking stupid, mate.
